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32.

it belongs to them, and it is theirs, as no one will object because it is owned by no one[106].

ist es auch, dann es ist niemand der es ihnen abstreiten thut weil es keinen Herren hat.

No change in their way of dressing can be observed: on Sunday, as for the rest of the week, they are dressed like gentlemen[107]; if they have a journey of only a half-hour to undertake they go on horseback or take a cabriolet, and women ride horseback just as easily as men. They also have the advantage of being the most beautiful of all, all foreign nations taken together[108]. Moreover, they are not haughty, but talk to everyone, rich or poor. Before setting off we again witnessed an execution on the 8^th of May: it was a non-commissioned artillery officer who had stabbed his captain because of a harlot! By order of the king, his hand was cut off and he was hanged etc.[109]

Man siehet auch bey ihnen keinen Unterscheid in der Kleidung es sey Sontag oder Wercktag so seyn sie allezeit angezogen wie die Edeldammen ; wann sie nur eine halbe Stund zu gehen haben sitzen sie zu Pferd oder in einer Schäße die Weibsleute seyn so wohl zu Pferde als wie die Mansleute. Auch haben sie den Vorzug in der Schönheit unter allen ausländischen Nationen. Sie seyn auch gar nicht hochmüthig reden mit jedermann er seye reich oder arm. Wir hatten auch vorher als wir uns auf den Marsch begaben noch eine Excution welche den 8ten May verrichtet wurde : mit einem Unterofficier von der Artillerie : welcher seinen Capitaine erstochen einer Hure halben ! Dessentwegen ihm hernach die Hand abgehauen und aufgehänget worden nach königlicher Ordonance etc.

On June 10, 1781 we left Newport and went aboard small crafts, and at 9 o’clock we left Newport in the direction of Providence, which is 30 English miles away from Newport.

Den 10ten Juny 1781 brachen wir von Newport auf und wurden auf kleine Fahrzeuge eingeschifft und fuhren gegen 9 Uhr von Newport nach Profidans ab welche ware 30 engellische Meillen von Newport.

The town of Providence is located along a river that sees a fair amount of ship traffic and that runs into the sea near Newport. On a hilltop above the city there is also a beautiful school. The town is also embellished with a beautiful new bell tower amongst other smaller ones etc. There, we disembarked and made our camp to the left of the town. We left a detachment group there along with the sick. Because a hospital[110] had been set up in the school. The others turned around and headed back to Newport.

Die Stadt Providens ist auch mit einem schönen schiffreichen Flüße versehen welcher sich bey Newport ins Meer giesset. Auch ist ein schönes Colegium alda oberhalb der Stadt auf einem kleinen Hügel stehent. Auch ist die Stadt mit einem schönen neuen Kirchthurm gezieret nebst noch etlichen kleinen etc Wir schifften alda aus und schlugen das Lager lincks an der Stadt. Wir liessen alda noch ein Tetachement zurück nebst den Krancken. Weilen alda ein Spithal errichtet ware in diesem Colegium. Die übrigen fuhren nach Newport zurück.

This detachment group was under the orders of Major Deprez[111]

Dieses Tachement wurde.pomandirt von Herrn Deprez Major.

https://gallica.bnf.fr/iiif/ark:/12148/btv1b10110846m/f21/pct:0,0,50,100/,700/0/native.jpg

Strasbourg, Médiathèque André Malraux, ms f 15, p. 40.

[agrandir]

Notes

106. Even though the purchase of property was a major cause for emigration to America and it was easier for lower classes to obtain a plot of land there than in Europe, Flohr’s assertion is a good example of the appeal of emigration, but also and especially of a persistent myth in the eyes of foreigners. The majority of land on the island of Newport would have been occupied, perhaps without property titles. But the fact remained that property was a source of conflict. It was distributed more or less unequally depending on the colony. In the late eighteenth century, the frontier had been pushed far from the coasts — admittedly in a rather unequal way depending on the colony; but it still exerted a strong attraction on migrants and poor people, but also on rich land owners of the era. Access to land in the West was, however, subject to strong limitations, firstly legislative, access to these lots being under the jurisdiction of different colonies that held often hypothetical ownership on the land. After the war, a large number of veterans were, for example, offered land in the West as a sort of reward for their service (and the difficulty of honoring this commitment was proof of the difficulty of acquiring land). The colonies, and later the States, also guaranteed many property titles to influential politicians (like Washington in West Virginia). Then the settlement of the West was very dangerous as it was carried out to the detriment of the Indian tribes that generally occupied those territories.

107. Cf. Anonymous, Paravent de l’Indépendance (detail), oil on canvas, between 1781-1789, Blérancourt, Franco-American Museum of the Château de Blérancourt [reproduction en ligne - RMN]

108. Cf. Nicolaus Hoffmann, Royal Bavière, Nassau, Bouillon, Royal Deux-Ponts, drawing, late eighteenth century [reproduction en ligne - RMN]

109. Once a soldier was sentenced to death by the military justice, he was usually hanged and not shot by a firing squad. Although the practice of mutilation was more rare, it was nonetheless rich in symbolic meaning since it meant cutting off the homicidal hand.

110. Military hospitals could be divided into two categories: field hospitals, which took care of wounded soldiers on the front line, and hospitals situated behind the front line, which were housed in actual buildings and took care of serious operations and recovery. Rochambeau’s expeditionary corps was, in this respect, the best treated of the Ancien Régime, as it had nearly 60 health officials for 6,000 men.

111. Major Deprez was an officer with the regiment's chief of staff. He was born in 1730 in Cranie. Tröss (Rudlf Karl), Das Regiment Royal-Deux-Ponts, Gesammelte Beiträge zur Geschichte des Regiments, Stadtverwaltung Zweibrücken im Juli 1983, p. 69.